


Mood: Wrathful

by Nellancholy



Category: Katana ZERO (Video Game), Long Live the Queen (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Time Loop, and if you've played neither play both, i guess they're both games where you repeat things a lot, i wonder why i wrote this, play the other game if you haven't already, princess elodie takes a precognitive super drug: the fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-10
Updated: 2019-12-10
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:46:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21744739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nellancholy/pseuds/Nellancholy
Summary: This time she'll get it right.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	Mood: Wrathful

Elodie charged forward, crystal radiant and sword drawn as she steeled herself against the white-haired king who so graciously presented himself to her.

The kind of man who would raise a fleet, throw Shanjian and Novan lives alike into steel and fire for conquest and for crystal.

The kind of man who would kill but a mere girl with the force of his magic.

But no.

That wasn’t anything she could benefit from any more.

Heavy the crown would sit upon her brow. And heavy the crystal that hung off her neck.

She was no mere girl. She never would be again.

The person she was but a month ago was gone. Dead, perhaps. Or merely sleeping.

This is what she had trained for. In this moment, no glory, no honor.

The survival of her kingdom (and deep down, she knew, herself) lay on the next few seconds.

She thrust at him, a furious, perfectly calculated move that could split a needle.

And the tip of her sword bounced off an invisible barrier. And in the next moment, pain like a star being born in her chest. Pain that spread into her entire being over a moment and an eternity.

And then…darkness.

 **No, that won’t work**.

And just like that, she was back at the fateful moment.

She charged forward. With her free hand, she flung a concentrated orb of force at the beast, shattering the barrier. She whirled, preparing to slash across his throat. But he was just a bit faster. Taking less than a second to recover from the impact, he waved his hand, and a gust of wind harsher than scirocco tore across her, taking off what felt like the entirety of her skin and flesh, down to her bone.

**No, that won’t work.**

_Again._

She charged. Broke the barrier. He wasn’t wearing any armor under those robes of his. Nothing she couldn’t slice through with this sword, anyway. She lunged, preparing to skewer him in the gut, something that would leave him perfectly open for a killing blow. Just then, an invisible wall pushed her backwards, leaving her just short as the fine point of the blade hung before him. A bolt of lightning struck her head, giving her the slightest moment of consciousness before everything exploded.

**No, that won’t work.**

**No, that won’t work.**

**No, that won’t work.**

**No, that won’t work.**

**No, that won’t work.**

**No, that won’t work.**

_**Yes, that should do it.** _

Charge. Break. Push back. _Force against force. **His heart. Tear it out.**_

They sat poised for a moment as silence fell upon every witness.

Her blade slid clean through his chest, striking like the first, inexorable beam of the sun’s light at daybreak.

Time stood still.

That first fatal blow was for Caloris, for all of Nova. For every life taken in battle, every drop of blood spilled.

What came next was for herself.

She pulled the sword out…and thrust it back in, a little lower. And she did it again, and again. In this frozen moment, she was wrath incarnate, as she stuck and bled him far beyond what any butcher would. For even the animals deserved dignity.

Ten thousand, no, a hundred thousand holes she made before it was over.

No one else could perceive her movements, nor would anyone question the brave young queen-to-be and how the invading king of Shanjia turned to a mangled, minced heap before her in a split second. No one who mattered, at least.

Time resumed its march. She allowed him a single, final moment of eternal agony as she snarled under her breath.

**“You’re fucking subhuman.”**

And she was Elodie again.

And Togami, King Consort of Shanjia was no more.

She turned and wiped the drenched sword on her skirt.

 _“Clean up this mess. And the rest of the filth.”_ She spoke, to no one in particular.

* * *

Elodie sat in the wide, soft chair in the well-appointed library, her blue eyes wide open as her glassy stare met the strange, greying man in the strange suit.

He pursed his lips, looking back at her.

“Your Majesty, I understand the day’s events must have you…shaken. Would you rather not be spending time with your father?”

She licked her lips, every other muscle in her body motionless. “We will have all the time we need after this, physician. At the risk of sounding…presumptuous, we advise you to think only about carrying out the duty for which we retain you.”

The man blinked, quickly rousing himself and hobbling over to his desk, producing a clear syringe and the glowing blue substance that by now was very familiar to Elodie.

She closed her eyes and rolled up her sleeve.

The needle pricked, ever so slightly, somehow more sharply than the infinite deaths she suffered today.

Time slowed around her for a moment, and then the needle withdrew as she opened her eyes.

“W-well then, that will be your daily dosage, Your Majesty. Do inform me if any…strange symptoms occur.”

Elodie exhaled. “We do not need your advice. You are excused.”

This man had presented himself and his strange concoction so many times before, in…the previous cycles. And every time she rejected him. And every time Caloris, and Elodie, came to ruin. Flames, the screams of battle, a final death. Or assassination by poison or by a dagger. Or simply a fate of wasting away for the rest of her life in a dungeon as someone more… _deserving_ took the throne.

This time she accepted his offer. What else had she to lose aside from the kingdom and the life she already lost a hundred times over?

Her fist clenched.

For Caloris...for Nova… _for Mother_.

No matter the cost.


End file.
